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Living with IBS and trying new things

Hi IBS community,

So I have had IBS(D) for many years now, and mine is mostly connected with certain foods and also the psychological element. It is bad in the morning in particular and I have been a consistent user of Imodium, which I do not like, given that it has the tendency to completely immobilize your intestine and bowel.

Medication trials

At first I just thought that my IBS was a psychological link between the panic attacks I used to get and my physiological "fight or flight" reaction to stressful situations, but after a period where I had terrible pain at night in my lower abdomen I had to seek medical help to find out what was really going on. So after doing a test for IBS(D) which came back strongly positive my gastroenterologist put me on Xifaxan, which is an extremely strong antibiotic that essentially clears out all the bacteria in your gut and bowel and allows for a complete reset. This worked to stop the pain, but shortly after using it I had similar diarrhea symptoms again, and particularly in the morning.

So after a battle with my health insurance provider, I am now on the 75mg dose of Viberzi, but I'm only really taking half of that dose every morning and skipping the evening dose. In terms of the morning, it has been a game changer in that it stops the spasms so you have no more panic attacks about finding a "pit-stop" toilet on your way to wherever you're going, but it does have some side effects, and definitely limits your intake of alcohol.

Optimizing diet

What I am now about to do is to take the Zoe test for gut biome and blood fat and glucose and then design a diet around that. I definitely notice that with some foods, if I eat them in the evening, it causes huge distress in the morning - so for example hot dogs with mustard and ketchup is an absolute horror show for me in the morning, and even meatloaf with veggies and mashed potatoe also (but to a lesser extent) appears to cause a flare up. But I think the Viberzi with the optimized diet will hopefully get me to the next level in terms of being able to live with this condition.

Just as a side note, I have tried peppermint and not found it helpful (I don't notice any effects) but I would definitely be interested to hear feedback on other treatments and food supplements.

Thanks for reading this far, and I look forward to interacting with this group!

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